Monday, March 07, 2005

U.S. troops fire on car carrying Italians in Iraq -- one killed.

In a disturbing development, American troops in Iraq fired on an unarmed vehicle carrying some Italians, killing one of the passengers in the car. While the ambassador and his wife escaped unhurt, their Iraqi translator was shot dead and ... oh, wait ... you thought I was talking about this, didn't you?

The freed Italian hostage wounded by American troops at a checkpoint in Baghdad shortly after her release said in an article Sunday that her Iraqi captors had warned her U.S. forces "might intervene."

Giuliana Sgrena, who writes for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto, described how she was wounded and Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari was killed as she was celebrating her freedom on the way to the airport. The shooting Friday has fueled anti-American sentiment in a country where people are deeply opposed to U.S. policy in Iraq.

"I remember only fire," she said in her article. "At that point a rain of fire and bullets came at us, forever silencing the happy voices from a few minutes earlier."...

No, no, I'm talking about the first time, back in 2003:

On 18 September an American soldier in Iraq fired on Pietro Cordone, senior adviser for culture to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Although the ambassador and his wife escaped the incident unharmed, his Iraqi interpreter, Saad Mohamed Sultan, was shot dead. The US military expressed regret for the shooting, which took place on the road from Mosul to Tikrit.

Oops. Good thing those Italians are such staunch supporters and Coalition members. Otherwise, they might be getting a bit pissed by now.

1 comment:

Cori said...

I've been to Italy - I've seen how they drive. Honest mistake on the part of the soldiers.
(joke)